MIT Emergency Ventilator Project highlights MASI Project as a world leader

Export innovation. From 21 to 25 June, the members of the MASI project, Dr. Benjamín Castañeda, general coordinator of the project and of our Biomedical Engineering speciality, and Mag. Jaime Reátegui, project lead of Brein and graduate of our Electronic Engineering speciality, will be in the United States. They have been invited by the team of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which manufactured 3,000 units of its own emergency ventilator.

The reason for the invitation is that, having pioneered the use of a resuscitator as part of a ventilator, the MIT team had contact with various initiatives around the world that sought to make similar developments during the pandemic. Based on this knowledge, the group from the North American university - the No. 1 in the world according to the QS World University Rankings 2022 - mentions that MASI, with more than 300 units, is the second project in the world in terms of number of fabrications.

In addition, researchers at the MIT Emergency Ventilator Project note that MASI is the only initiative worldwide that has reached the stage of providing hospital care. "It is the only 'emergency ventilator' that I know of that is currently being used clinically and has been accumulating clinical evidence that it is capable of providing respiratory support in patients with COVID-19. So MASI is really leading the way in building evidence of clinical efficacy," says Albert Kwon, M.D., M.D., clinical lead of the MIT Emergency Ventilator Project.

Towards MIT

The MASI researchers first stopped in New York to meet with a group from the company 10XBeta, which manufactured the biomedical equipment. They will then move on to Boston, where they will continue their meetings with members of the MIT Emergency Ventilator Project.

As part of the collaboration, Dr. Castañeda delivered a MASI ventilator and has received one of the Spiro Wave devices developed by MIT. "We are going to exchange experiences about the development of ventilators. We will try to compare them and see the possibilities of working together, either to improve the systems of this equipment or other health-related issues," he says.

Sophisticated approach and development

As you may recall, the MASI project began in March 2020, when representatives from our University and the companies Brein (the innovation hub of the Breca group), Diacsa, Zolid Design and Energy Automation Technologies began to devise the development of a mechanical ventilator that would help in the fight against the pandemic. They quickly and efficiently moved through the construction, design and validation phases, and by October the first 150 units were being delivered to the Ministry of Health. " One of the most important aspects for the success of the project is the human resources," says Dr. Castañeda.

For Ph.D. Nevan Hanumara, project leader of the MIT Emergency Ventilator Project, the development of the MASI project is an example to be followed worldwide: "The best way to address 'global health' is to share experiences and knowledge across regions. A perfect example is how the Peruvian team considered in its design not only physical robustness or low cost, but also potential supply chain disruption. It selected lower performance microcontrollers, but which were more readily available, and then wrote higher performance code to compensate. This is a really sophisticated approach, valid both in emerging markets, such as India and Africa, and in the US, where we are also suffering from a global shortage of microcontrollers.

National quality

The MIT team's invitation and interest in learning about the experience behind the MASI project shows that, contrary to the prejudice that is often held, it is possible to develop technology of international quality in our country with the capacity to have an impact on the world. "We can even think about exporting the Peruvian product," says Castañeda.

About the success and recognition obtained by the MASI ventilators, the coordinator of our Biomedical Engineering Speciality says: "This is a clear demonstration of the capacity we have as professionals at PUCP andin Peru. We have nothing to envy to any project worldwide. It is also proof of what can be achieved when academia, private enterprise and government are integrated and collaborate".